The Need for a Biblical Perspective of the Gospel and Wokeness

We live in a society that is therapeutic and many of us, perhaps even most of us, have bought into this therapeutic view of the world. Let us begin by defining this term. When we say that our society is therapeutic, we mean that the purpose of the collective society is no longer to educate a citizen in the standards of morality so that he or she is accountable to moral absolutes enshrined in law and enforced by the judicial system, but therapeutic society now exists to affirm how you feel and what you believe to be true about yourself irrespective of reality. Your identity is king.

The evidence that we have believed in the therapeutic nature of society is that we believe that which makes us feel good, or affirms our self-defined identity, is truth so that our view of our individual selves is what we declare it to be no matter how irrational or how patently untrue it is. And in this therapeutic view of our culture and society that affirms our identity, no one is allowed to question our self-determined view of reality because that is oppression, often couched in terms of racism, or homophobia, or transphobia, etc. What I feel about myself and others is what is true. Therefore, in personalized relativism, the subjective view of the self is the determining factor for reality. How does this relate to the Gospel and wokeness?

First, coming from a place of wanting to display love and compassion in response to the wrongs in society and the world, many Christians are overwhelmed by the speed with which the wokeness movement has come on the scene and they do not know how to respond to the cultural developments that we are seeing in the United States. How do we know that Christians are not doing this well? Because believers are breaking fellowship with their church families and other Christians by responding with uninformed emotions, even expressing key points of the wokeness worldview to argue against Christians having an opinion on these issues. Well-meaning but misinformed believers do this rather than responding with wisdom and a biblical worldview. If you have or are separating yourself from other Christians because you disagree with them on the issue of wokeness, then you are already losing to the enemy of our souls, Satan, who is using this temporary issue to divide the eternal bride of Jesus Christ. Thus, equipping the church with a biblical worldview is an absolute necessity in our day, especially as it relates to wokeness, so that there may be unity among the people of God grounded in the truth of God's Word.

Second, there will always be people who do not agree with the biblical perspective on wokeness, or abortion, or homosexuality, or gender fluidity, or any number of issues about which the world promotes an ungodly perspective which inherently makes all these issues political. This can never mean that from a place of fear we will cower away from equipping the church to discern the times or from declaring truth to an unbelieving world. Be sure, however, that as we declare biblical truth, that is, the things of the Spirit of God, that there will be people in the world and those who self-identify as Christians who will not accept truth for any number of reasons, or who claim that making a stand on issues in culture is wrong to do. Taking stands on issues that are unbiblical and need the wisdom of the Spirit and the truth of the Word of God to be brought to bear upon them is consistent with the entire history of the church. But there will always be opposition to biblical truth. Why?

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NAS)

This is especially dangerous for those in the church who are defining their view of wokeness unwittingly from within the wokeness worldview. They have defined their beliefs, or their fears, based upon the news and social media, but they do not have a biblical perspective. They have not done any substantive research or study about this topic or its implications. Therefore, the way forward is to help Christians to understand the woke worldview through a biblical lens. To do any less is to compromise both our faith and our witness. In sum, it is needful that we build up and edify the church which can only be accomplished with the truth no matter how unpopular the truth is in the broader culture and even within the professing church.